Struggling to Sell - Hints and Tips

Cakeguts

General rule.


Viewings and no offers very overpriced


Viewings and offers that can't proceed a bit overpriced.



Viewings and offers that can proceed then the price is about right.




My feeling about this house is that it is in Crawley which isn't the most desirable area.


The estate is behind the crematorium so not everyone's idea of a nice place to live.


The house is very overlooked in all directions including the fact that there appears to be a road on the otherside of the fence at the end of the backgarden. If not then someone has a street lamp in their garden.


To sell such an ugly looking house it has to be in a nice position on a nice estate. From what I can see in the pictures this doesn't apply to your house.



I would suggest lowering the price to the £390s to get it out of the £400k bracket.

AnotherJoe

fiisch wrote: »

Thanks all very useful stuff! The fact a lot of you have picked up on location is interesting - the map is wrong we’re much further from the sewage works on a completely different road, and house not on the flight path.

I agree re.: description - our comments are an out and out lie, but I was assured that guff sells houses. Will have a chat with agent as it obviously isn’t working.

We’re open to dropping price - I’m assuming it’s not worth messing around and to drop in brackets I.e.: £425k —-> ££400k?

Well that definitely needs fixing asap then !!!


If you drop to £399,950 or something like that, eg under £400k you may well pick up buyers for whom £400k is an absolute cut off.


Its always going to be tough competing with new houses, i have a friend doing similar, lots of new houses 1-2 miles away from hers she's had to massively drop the price.. I dont think its so much the "newness" as such, but builders will offer all sorts of incentives such as "help" with SDLT, legal fees etc that you can only match by dropping your price.


Other thing I note - the garden is massively overlooked, the reduces the buyers pool a fair bit.



But the two main things I'd do are fix the location (sewage works and flight path? Hardly conducive to a sale. You need to camp in the EAs office until thats done) and drop the price to under £400k. Those can be done right now.

Surrey_EA

Cakeguts wrote: »

To sell such an ugly looking house it has to be in a nice position on a nice estate. From what I can see in the pictures this doesn't apply to your house.

Harsh, but fair! :whistle:

Blackpool_Saver

You need to make the outside look better.
Change all the bathroom tiles for neutral.
Sack the agent and get a normal one who takes real pictures and writes proper descriptions including the location.

chunkytfg

13 pictures and other than the outside front of house picture and the bathrooms you can see into a neighbouring bedroom window in every other one. Not exactly ideal!

Silvertabby

How much are similar new builds going for? You will be competing with the new build options of chosing your own options/decor and - the big one - Help to Buy.

Sadly, I think you'll either have to drop your price or wait until the estate is finished (or both).

user1168934

Hi Op, So I am a prospective buyer, looking to buy in or around crawley/horsham. I live about 15 minutes drive from your place and travel to crawley for everyday things, so roughly familiar with the area. The price kind of matches my budget too.

Here is my honest (and probably harsh) opinion. For the kind of money you are asking, one can get much better properties around crawley. I mean there are good looking detached houses available cheaper than yours. They may be a lot older than yours but am I willing to pay so much premium for it - don't think so.

IMHO, there are many issues:
1. Price (massively overpriced), much cheaper properties around.
2. Pretty much in the middle of nowhere, far from station, supermarkets, etc. Not the greatest of locations.

3. Very close to the airport. I wouldn't know if it is on the flight path or not. I would not want to buy so close to the airport at this sort of price.

4. Feels smallish and cramped, I know its 4 bed but the size seems small.
5. In this sort of price bracket you can find detached/semi in Salford which is much better area (in my opinion). You can even find better properties in Earlswood in this price range which is much better area in many aspects (my opinion again).

6. It is not the best area. Crawley has got a bit of bad reputation and is considered generally cheaper than surrounding areas.

7. Not the best looking property from the outside.

Overall, I think it is the price, combined with other tiny bits. I don't see anything that this house is offering which other much cheaper houses are not. Personally, I would not want to pay anything over 300K for this house (if making an offer at all) but simply because it is not ticking any of my boxes.



I do apologise if it sounds harsh, just trying to help.

Surrey_EA

user1168934 wrote: »

Overall, I think it is the price,

It's always price.

Somewhere between £0 and £425,000 there is a person who will buy this house. Whether it's at a price the present owner will be happy with is a different matter.

Marvel1

How much is your house compared to the ones stil being built? Same price? If cheaper, by how much?

As if not much cheaper, I would be buying the new build and being the first person rather than second hand.

AnotherJoe

fiisch wrote: »

Ouch.... I fancy myself as a budding gardener!!

Why? There seems literally nothing there except grass. If there were a few trees along the back fence they would have obscured at least some of the overlooking houses.

I think you need to cut your losses move into rented and become a cash buyer looking for something that's an equal bargain.